Super Mario/ Captain N/ Zelda TV series preservations

So, all of the classic Nintendo cartoons have been available in the US (now OOP in their most complete versions from Shout Factory) on DVD for a while now, but most of the series are still missing video footage and/or audio.

I’m making new, unedited boxsets of the following classic Nintendo shows:

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (broadcast order, including all live action episodes, all Mario cartoons with all of the popular cover songs edited back in, all Zelda cartoons, plus commercial bumpers and DiC and Viacom closing logos on all episides, and finally, Dominos Pizza sponsor bumpers on certain episodes.)

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show (SMBSS) was a half hour 65 episode live-action/ cartoon hybrid that aired in 1989 in syndication five days a week. Every episode was bookended by a live action sitcom starring “Captain” Lou Albano and Danny Wells as Mario and Luigi. The show would follow the adventures of the brothers in their plumbing shop which also doubled as their apartment. Each episode would usually have (a) celebrity guest star(s). In between the live action show was a cartoon. On Monday through Thursday it was a Super Mario Bros. cartoon and Friday had a Legend of Zelda cartoon, parts of which would be previewed in each precedeing M-Th episode. The first 51 (41 if only counting the M-Th episodes) episodes with Mario cartoons also had a cover of a popular song (such as Michael Jackson’s Bad) play during certain scenes.

The best four NTSC releases of the show were: Super Mario Bros. Super Show Vol. 1 and Vol 2. and The Legend of Zelda- The Complete Series, all from Shout! Factory; as well as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show: Collector’s Set released in Australia by Beyond Home Entertainment.

The two Shout volume releases contained the most material. 47 complete episodes of the 52 episodes with Mario cartoons, complete with commercial bumpers, Legend of Zelda previews, segues into the previews (“Let’s see what the next Legend of Zelda is about”, for example), closing credits and both the live action and cartoon opening theme songs. The only missing things from these 47 episodes were the complete originally aired DiC/ Viacom closing studio bumpers, Dominos Pizza sponsor bumpers and the fact that they had the popular music replaced with generic BGM from another show. In addition, a 48th episode (Day of the Orphan/ King Mario of Cramalot) was presented in it’s later, Family Channel master, since the original master was deemed to have been lost. This meant that, in addition to the changes above, the episode had been slowed down and the commercial bumpers and Legend of Zelda segments had been removed as well. More details on this below. The remaining four live action episodes, “Baby Mario Love”, “9001: A Mario Odyseey”, “George Washington Slept Here” and “Texas Tea” were left off the set for various reasons. Only the cartoons for these episodes (minus the cover songs) were presented as Bonus Episodes. The only DVDs to contain the cover songs in English were in the UK, but only on 17 of the episodes. Most DVDs released in countries that contain audio tracks in foreign languages also include the cover songs in English. However, the dialouge being in another language (German, for example), makes it difficult to splice the song back into an English track. Most early VHS releases also include the cover songs, but again, not every episode was released on VHS.

The next best release of the show was in Australia. The Super Mario Bros. Super Show Collectors Edition. Even though Australia is a PAL TV based country, this release is region free and in NTSC. This release was largely similar to the Shout! releases above, with 50 of the 52 “complete” Super Mario episodes. The Shout! volumes had filters applied to all but the “bonus” episodes, whereas this version did not. For this reason, this collection has served as the basis of the majority of my restoration. Much like most other releases, the cover song and “Day of the Orphan/ King Mario of Cramalot” changes are also present here. This release does in fact contain the correct DiC/ Viacom bumpers on most episodes and the Dominos Pizza bumpers on every episode that originally had them. Three of the previously “lost” episodes from the above sets are now presented here, complete with cartoon and live-action segments: “Baby Mario Love/ Koopenstein”, “9001: A Mario Odyssey/ On Her Majesty’s Sewer Service”, and “Texas Tea/ The Trojan Koopa”. However, the episode “The Mario Monster Mash/ Rolling Down the River” was mysteriously absent as well as the commercial bumpers on all 50 episodes, which have been omitted.

They best quality version of the Mario cartoons are releases from Ncircle. They still don’t have the cover songs, but they look nicer than other releases. They were collected in two boxsets from Ncirle. The episodes don’t contain any live-action segments, or opening theme songs (there is one theme song per disc, but it’s not “connected” to any of the episodes.

The Legend of Zelda related episodes, however have not been given the same respect. The only release to attempt to present the episodes complete with it’s live action portions was Shout! Factory’s The Legend of Zelda: The Complete Series mentioned above. However, this release was mostly thrown together, as only five of the thirteen live action episodes that originally accompanied The Legend of Zelda episodes are present: “Wild Thing”, “Fred Van Winkle”, “Defective Gadgetry”, “The Great Hereafter” and “Pizza Crush”. Additionally, the cartoon placement within the live action portion was done incorrectly when compared to the original airing. The cartoons are supposed to take place at the first commercial break (fade to black) of the live action episode, however the cartoons here have been inserted at the scene transition featuring a cartoon Mario head in each of the episodes instead. None of the Dominos Pizza or commercial bumpers are here either.

The only release to contain both Mario and Zelda cartoons was a single disc called Mario Mania from Sterling Entertainment. It had the complete first week of episodes, including the first episode with a Legend of Zelda episode, “Slime Busters/ The Ringer”. Of course it wasn’t perfect, as none of the bumpers or Legend of Zelda previews were on the disc. This is the only NTSC DVD to contain the live action episode, “Slime Busters”, and it is uncut (minus the commercial bumpers). My restoration will be the first “release” to have the full Mario/ Zelda cartoon and live action collection all in one set.

Captain N: The Game Master (season 1, with all popular cover songs and the complete versions of all episodes and clip-shows, plus as bonus features, the changed episodes, such as version 1 of “How’s Bayou”.) This show originally aired on Saturday mornings on NBC, during the same period that SMBSS aired in syndication. Like SMBSS, it also had covers of many popular songs in each episode, which have been edited out of all English DVD releases.
At least three episodes of the show have been altered or omitted from every release as well.

Captain N and the Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 (edited back into hour long blocks and including all popular cover songs and previously lost footage.) After SMBSS and the first season of Captain N had ended, this show was created. It would start with a SMB3 cartoon, then a Captain N cartoon, and finally a second SMB3 cartoon. All DVD releases have divided the episodes into separate Captain N and SMB3 releases. Shout! Factory’s Captain N: The Game Master: The Complete Series contains the first, standalone season, plus the second, SMB3 season, minus the SMB3 cartoons, and with new title and end credits. The SMB3 cartoons are in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: The Complete Series. The second season of Captain N didn’t contain any cover songs, but some SMB3 episodes did, however, which are missing from most DVD releases.

Captain N and the New Super Mario World was the last Captain N and Mario cartoon to be aired. This time, it was a half hour show, with one Captain N and one SMW segment per episide. Shout! Factory’s set doesn’t seem to be missing anything major this time, only the commercial bumpers. For this show, only a bonus disc with the commercial bumpers and alternate shorter versions of certain season 1 and 2 Captain N episodes, will be made.

The Legend of Zelda: The Complete Series (chronological order) While the Zelda episodes will be included in broadcast order as aired with SMB Super Show, I will also do a set of the Zelda episodes in chronological order, while also including all of Link and Zelda’s appearances on Captain N. Someone even made custom Zelda end credits for me.

DETAILS:The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!

Complete Episode List (as originally aired) in the format Live-Action/ Cartoon, followed by the featured cover song heard in the episode. Unless otherwise noted, the cover song is from the cartoon:

VOL. 1:

Episode 1: Neatness Counts/ The Bird, the Bird
Featured cover song: Surfin’ Bird (The Trashmen)
Original Air Date- September 4, 1989

Episode 2: Day of the Orphan/ King Mario of Cramalot
Featured cover song: Bad (Michael Jackson)
Original Air Date- September 5, 1989

Episode 5: Slime Busters/ The Ringer
Featured cover song: N/A (The Legend of Zelda cartoon)
Original Air Date- September 8, 1989

Episode 6: The Mario Monster Mash/ Rolling Down the River
Featured cover song: Proud Mary (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Original Air Date- September 11, 1989

Episode 7: Bonkers from Yonkers/ The Great Gladiator Gig
Featured cover song: Shaddap You Face (Joe Dolce)
Original Air Date- September 12, 1989

Episode 8: Will the Real Elvis Please Shut Up!/ Love 'Em and Leave 'Em
Featured cover song: The Power of Love (Huey Lewis & the News)
Original Air Date- September 13, 1989

Episode 9: Bats in the Basement/ Mario and the Beanstalk
Featured cover song: I Heard it Through the Beanvine (a slightly altered version of I Heard It Through the Grapevine) (Marvin Gaye)
Original Air Date- September 14, 1989

Episode 63: Santa Claus Is Coming to Flatbush/ Star Koopa
Featured cover song: N/A
Original Air Date- November 29, 1989

Episode 64: Captain Lou Is Missing/ Robo Koopa
Featured song (live-action): Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper)
Original Air Date- November 30, 1989

Episode 65: The Ghoul of My Dreams/ The Moblins are Revolting
Featured cover song: N/A (The Legend of Zelda cartoon)
Original Air Date- December 1, 1989

In addition to the cover songs, here’s all of the “previously lost” footage I have obtained and restored. The best available version of the segments was used, in this order: DVD, Hulu/ Netflix, official VHS, then YouTube/ low quality recordings. All PAL sourced footage has been converted to NTSC. Cover songs reinstated from highest quality source available for each episode. Commercial bumpers sourced from Shout! Factory set or recreated for certain episodes. Zelda cartoons sourced from Shout! Factory Zelda set and Mario cartoons (minus the opening theme song) sourced from Ncircle cartoon only box sets. All other footage sourced from NTSC Australian Super Mario Bros. Super Show Collectors Set, unless noted otherwise below.

Restored live-action segments as aired:

Day of the Orphan/ King Mario of Cramalot Every official NTSC disc and streaming source since the initial airing has been from the Family Channel (now called Freeform) airing of the episode, in which there are two additional commercial break fade-outs/ ins on the cartoon, also missing the Legend of Zelda preview, segue to the preview, plus the commercial bumpers, as well as the cover song. The VHS release has everything intact, except the Zelda segue and preview. Presumably because of these Family Channel changes, every NTSC source after the initial airing and VHS release has the episode’s speed slowed-down so that the resulting episode’s length artificially matched it’s original unedited length. Now presented w/ restored “Legend of Zelda” segue, preview and custom-made episode-specific commercial bumpers. Cartoon and live-action segments have been speed corrected and cartoon false fades have been removed and replaced with the correct dissolves (from UK footage). Zelda segue and preview have been recreated from foreign footage found on YouTube combined with DVD sourced footage recreated to match how the episode might have looked when it originally aired in 1989.

Slime Busters (sourced from official US single disc NTSC DVD “Mario Mania”, with recreated episode-specific commercial bumpers; originally aired with Legend of Zelda: “The Ringer”, which has been inserted into its proper placement within the episode.)

The Mario Monster Mash/ Rolling Down the River (This episode was not included on the Australian Collector’s Set, so it’s sourced from the Shout! Factory Vol. 1 set.) The cartoon (minus the opening theme) was sourced from Ncircle.

Magic’s Magic (sourced from German PAL DVD, with recreated episode-specific commercial bumpers, English audio and “Until next time” segment sourced from official Kids Klassics VHS and original airing; originally aired with Legend of Zelda: “Cold Spells”, which has also been inserted back into its proper positioning within the episode.)

Wild Thing (sourced from official Shout Factory Zelda DVD, now with custom-made episode specific commericial bumpers; originally aired with Legend of Zelda: “The White Knight”, which has been moved to its proper position within the episode.)

Mommies Curse (sourced from German PAL DVD, generic commercial bumpers restored, English audio and “Until next time” segment sourced from official Kids Klassics VHS; originally aired with The Legend of Zelda: “Kiss ’N Tell”, which has also been inserted back into its proper positioning within the episode.)

Fred Van Winkle (sourced from official Shout Factory Zelda DVD, now with restored generic commericial bumpers; originally aired with Legend of Zelda: “Sing for the Unicorn”, which has been moved to its proper position within the episode.)

Tutti Frutti, Oh Mario (TFOM) (sourced from German PAL DVD, English audio and “Until next time” segment sourced from original airing, generic commercial bumpers restored; originally aired with Legend of Zelda: “That Sinking Feeling”, which has also been inserted back into its proper positioning within the episode.)

The Magic Love (sourced from German PAL DVD, generic commercial bumpers restored, missing segments not on German DVD sourced from Swedish language original airing, English audio recreated from scratch; originally aired with Legend of Zelda: “Doppelganger”, which has also been inserted back into its proper positioning within the episode.)

George Washington Slept Here (sourced from German PAL DVD, Zelda preview taken from Netflix Club Mario segment, recreated with DVD footage, Zelda segue and other missing segments not on German DVD sourced from original airings, generic commercial bumpers restored; originally aired with “The Unzappables”, which was sourced from Shout Factory vol. 2 bonus episodes.)

Defective Gadgetry (sourced from official Shout Factory Zelda DVD, now with restored generic commericial bumpers; originally aired with Legend of Zelda: “Underworld Connections”, which has been moved to its proper position within the episode.)

The Great Hereafter (sourced from official Shout Factory Zelda DVD, now with restored generic commericial bumpers; originally aired with Legend of Zelda: “Stinging a Stinger”, which has been moved to its proper position within the episode.)

Treasure of the Sierra Brooklyn (sourced from German PAL DVD, generic commercial bumpers restored, English audio restored from a combination of the original airing and some recreated audio, “Until next time” segment sourced from “Defective Gadgetry” DVD footage; originally aired with Legend of Zelda: “A Hitch in the Works”, which has also been inserted back into its proper positioning within the episode.)

Pizza Crush (sourced from official Shout Factory Zelda DVD, now with restored generic commericial bumpers; originally aired with Legend of Zelda: “Fairies in the Spring”, which has been moved to its proper position within the episode.)

Tutti Frutti Mario (TFM) (recreated using TFOM DVD footage from above, combined with footage from Swedish language original airing, generic commercial bumpers restored, English audio synced and modified from TFOM; originally aired with Legend of Zelda: “The Missing Link”, which has also been inserted back into its proper positioning within the episode.)

The Ghoul of My Dreams (sourced from German PAL DVD, English audio and “Until next time” segment sourced from original airing, generic commercial bumpers restored; originally aired with Legend of Zelda: “The Moblins are Revolting”, which has also been inserted back into its proper positioning within the episode.)

Notes:

*Tutti Frutti Mario (TFM) and Tutti Frutti, Oh Mario (TFOM) are basically the same episode, with slight differences, including different title cards and “floating Mario head” transitions. The only source for TFM that was found is a Swedish language episode on YouTube. After combining and recreating footage from both TFM and TFOM, Tutti Frutti Mario should now be very close to the offical English aired version.

When the Super Mario Bros. Super Show was originally aired in the US in syndication in 1989, there would be a commercial bumper each time the show went to or came back from commercials. For the first three weeks the show aired, these bumpers would be episode-specific, using a still frame from the episode in a brick background with custom audio, such as “Don’t change that channel!”. Four of these episode-specific bumpers were missing from every official DVD, so I have made custom commercial bumpers for those episodes. For “Slime Busters” and “Magic’s Magic”, my custom bumpers were made to match the official bumpers found recorded on VHS from original US airings, in DVD quality. Since TV airings of “Day of the Orphan” and “Wild Thing” have not been located, I made new bumpers to match the look and feel of the official bumpers on the Shout Factory DVDs. All of the remaining episodes used “generic” commercial bumpers with a still frame of the opening title sequence. In addition, some episodes had other parts recreated from various sources to match the original airings as closely as possible.

Additional bonus features are all Club Mario segments that have been located. These were made to replace the live-action Mario Bros. Plumbing segments after the inital airings to be more “hip”. Also alternate opening and closing credits for the Captain N and Mario cartoons that were aired together, as well as the Captain and the Video Game Masters/ Mario All-Stars openings and endings for those alternate cable tv-made compilation shows and all of the CD-i cut scenes from the Mario and Zelda games.

How’s Bayou
Featured cover song: Born On the Bayou (played twice in version 2)
Two different versions of this episode originally aired on NBC.

Videolympics
Featured cover song: I Got You (I Feel Good) (played twice)
There were at least two different versions of this episode on NBC. Each contained a few shots that the other was missing and vice-versa.

73 Replies

I have the 3 disc Zelda set. Only about 4 of the episodes have the live action segments. According to IMDB, some of the music was changed for one of the Mario shows, I don't know. I had the Kount Koopula vhs tape but can't find it. I really don't know anything about the Captain N show.

Perhaps, though, if the sound's not good enough, it could be combined with other material to get a better quality? e.g. the original song used, the edited audio track. Any rate, the video wouldn't really be necessary if it's untouched on DVD.

The sound is pretty decent on most episodes I'd say, but I have no idea how to extract the audio and edit it with the DVD versions. While I understand the licensing issues that made using the songs too costly on the DVDs, I really think it took away from some of the show's charm.

I could try and send you the episodes if your interested Molly, some are AVI, some are MPG and some are in FLV but all contain the original music. I'd love to find that episode of Mario with the song "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis.

I own all of the Shout Factory Nintendo cartoons on DVD (SMB SS vol 1 and 2, SMB3, Zelda, Captain N and the New Super Mario World and Captain N: The Complete Series.)

All of these Shout Factory releases are now OOP, and the newer Mario and Zelda releases are not complete (no live action, for example). I’m pretty sure that there are no currently available Captain N DVDs that are not out of print.

What would be super helpful as well is if someone had the missing live action Mario segments, The Magic Love and Treasure of the Sierra Brooklyn. I have on Treasure on VHS, but it’s missing the last minute or two… so a complete version would be nice, or just the second half.